Southwest Windpower Air 403 - Brand new in box, never used

I purchased a Southwest Windpower Air 403 in mid- late 2001 but it was never installed. The PV system installer, Mark, said he wanted the house completely finished to determine the best location for it to be erected but.....he sold his business, moved to Mt Shasta, CA and started Wholesale Solar prior to the house being finished. At that point, IMHO, I learned PV folks do not like wind folks, and vice versa, so a hybrid system of PV & wind was never completed on my house, and I am all PV. Therefore, this Air 403 has sat on a shelf in my garage ever since. It was removed from t he box and used as a table display once at a PV show here about 11 years ago for three days but that was it. I think it was at that show the manual was removed so I do not have that anymore. I do not wish to install the Air 403 at this time, especially since my house is to be put up for sale in the next few months.

Does anybody on this site need this Air 403? If so, make me an offer. I also have it for sale on Ebay and locally.

Comments

I had to chuckle at your comment about "PV folks do not like wind folks, and vice versa." That stems from too many wind generator sales people pushing unrealistic monthly power output ratings and product longevity/reliability claims.

If the system for sale is any good, I would think that you would install it on your new place?

It looks like mine, still in the box, because.....wait for it..... I have too much wind , in the sense of, it comes in locomotive like blasts and has severe directional changes .... and I don't have a 100 foot tower to mount it on..... etc

On a sunny day, which is very common for most people,2 x 200 Watt Solar Panels will continuously generate 360 watt for $400 cost.

On a 14 mph continuous windy day, which is very rare for most people,the typical 400 watt Wind Turbine will generate 50 Watts for $800 cost.

Solar produces nearly 7 times the energy, at half the cost.

Wind Turbines are very over-rated at 28mph continuous winds.But yet 99.99% of the people in the USA have only 12 mph average wind speeds, or less (much less).

Nearby, they installed installed Wind Turbines at schools, farms, residences, offices and gov't admin buildings.The problem is the actual average wind speed is 1/2 of what the Salesman quoted.Therefore, actual watt-hours produced by the Wind Turbines are 1/8th of quoted production.So, Break-Even for small Wind Turbines is more like 50 years - if it actually lasts than long.

I still like my neighbors, even though they have Wind Turbines.The farmer down the road paid $50,000 for a 10KW Bergey Excel & Lattice Tower.His Wind Turbine makes $1,000 worth of electricity per year.

Will a 16 year old PWM have dried out electrolytic capacitors?Electrolytic Capacitors are part of the reason we have a "throw away" society.If you are good with a soldering iron - replace all electrolytic caps before applying power.

We have so much wind up in the White Mountains, I am very tempted to do some harvesting of it. If a steady 25-30 mph wind with 40-50 mph gusts will produce anything worth harvesting that is.The good thing is, it's a lot easier to build a home brew wind turbine that a home brew PV panel.

Will a 16 year old PWM have dried out electrolytic capacitors?Electrolytic Capacitors are part of the reason we have a "throw away" society.If you are good with a soldering iron - replace all electrolytic caps before applying power.

No, they only dry out when/while they have power applied to them. For now, they are as good as new...for what that's worth.